Rebooting the game
by Andysaurus
Summary: Sullivan does not betray Costello, but improving police deployment causes Costello's temper to make him slip up. Ending Version 1.
1. Costello feels the heat

Should Billy text their possible destination to Sullivan? On balance he decided not to. Twice now, he had texted details to Sullivan, and twice they had still evaded the police intercepts, just. Twice Billy had called wolf and made the excuse of checking for a second police car tail. The police were getting cleverer in tailing Costello, but because of the mole Costello was getting away, just. Something was wrong. He had felt it from the first when Sullivan contacted him. Again Billy thought back to that night when Sullivan had first called him and he had thought, why had Sullivan wanted to recall him?. Dignum would not have given a ***. Something was wrong. Was Sulivan up to the job of running him. Was Sullivan just a jumped up cop? Or was Sullivan really kosher? Yes, was Sullivan the real deal? Was Sullivan even real? Billy was now really worried.

Billy watched the road, scanning for cop cars. Then Costello's phone rang. It would be the mole. Billy listened, though it never revealed anything useful. Evidently the mole was having a bad time getting info for Costello. As on the previous two night jobs, there were several increasingly angry conversations over the next ten minutes as the cops played cat and mouse. Then Costello snarled again what would happen to Sullivan if they were caught!


	2. Billy scares some Cops

Billy came alive. Now he had to lie low and act as if Costello had said nothing. Finally they got to the delivery point. Billy suggested that he act as lookout; Costello immediately said yes. Billy returned to a critical road junction and hid. Eventually two police cars approach, but were manoeuvring for a different exit. Billy gambled. He jumped out of hiding, sprinted into the intersection and almost into the path of the leading car, waving his arms.

The car stopped and the cops got out, guns ready. As one started to speak, Billy shouted, "I'm Queenan's undercover in Costello's gang. They're not far way. The mole is Staff Sergeant Sullivan. Let me in the car" . Billy repeated himself. The cops were almost in shock. One radioed Billy's directions and the mole's identity, then after removing Billy's gun they let him squeeze in the back.

Of cause Costello was gone by the time they arrived, but the drug suppliers van was still there. No doubt they were "dividing up" the cash - Costello would have told them to wait and so be an unwitting delay if the police were close behind. After a brief shoot-out the cops searched the van. Finding the remaining drugs and the money which Costello had paid vindicated Billy's story.

The ride back to the SIU was uneventful except that the cops did not quite know what to make of Billy. However, they did have questions regarding what had happened to Queenan and why Sullivan was the mole. Normally Billy would have been quite reticent. Now however, Billy realised that he might need all the friends, or at least sympathetic hearing, that he could get. In return Billy discovered that there had been a tail, and that Sullivan, The Apple of Captain Ellerby's Eye, was responsible.


	3. Some Acusations

Back at the SIU, Ellerby confronted Billy, who he had taken an instant dislike to. "Why was Queenan killed?" snarled Ellerby.

Billy was taken aback and the dislike became mutual. Composing himself, Billy recounted everything that had happened since he phoned Queenan that morning. When he told Ellerby that the police in the shoot-out may have been an unofficial police tail responsible for Queenan's death, a la mole, Ellerby seemed to lose his composure and was clearly disturbed.

"What's this crap about Sullivan?" snapped Ellerby.

First Billy recounted his suspicions and then what Costello had said.

Ellerby snarled in disbelief "Sergeant Sullivan has a perfect record. No possibility of him being the mole. Even if I should believe you, it has to be someone else". Even so, Ellerby seemed uncertain of himself.

Billy snapped back "And I have a perfect criminal record, fabricated by Queenan to throw me out of cop school and into jail so that I could join Costello's gang. The only thing that is true about me is that I have a bad attitude and juvenile record; I'm a cop, not a crook. Look in the records, I can open them. Just let me access a terminal".

Billy spent the rest of the night under protective custody in the cell block wondering how to get his car back from out of Costello's car park once he was reinstated, and asking the guards about Sullivan and Ellerby. Ellerby went home with a bad headache wondering if he had been taken for a fool, and who by. Sullivan went home to hone his excuses; he did not sleep well. Coming into work next morning would be a real act for Sullivan.


	4. The Inquest

Two weeks later an investigation was finally convened into Queenan's murder. Seated at the opposite ends of the long table were Captain Ellerby and Acting Captain Lazall, who provided cover and would act as an "umpire".

Along one side were the four members of the squad who had tailed Queenan. They were noticeably sitting at some distance from Sullivan and his two cronies, Barrigan and Brown. Brown, however, looked distinctly unhappy.

Opposite them was Dignum, who earlier that week had been persuaded by Lazall to return from his overlong leave of absence. Next to Dignum was Billy, with a pile of personnel files and case reports.

Only two sets of files mattered, the personnel files for Sullivan and his close friend Barragan along with their associated case reports. Sullivan thought that he was going to be questioned, again, by Dignum over the reason for tailing Queenan. But Billy had questions regarding Sullivan's solving of the murder of the hit men from Providence a year ago, questions that Sullivan, who both Billy and Dignum regarded as Mr Too Good to be True, was going to find hard to answer. The events that had led to Sullivan's promotions were going to come back to haunt him, and Barrigan.

And there was also the matter of Dignum seeing Sullivan using his phone during the FBI/SIU joint operation. Billy suspected that the "corrupt" FBI agents found in Queenan's file were responsible for that fiasco, but if it could be pinned on Sullivan then it would be.


End file.
